The new ER near Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children employs some unorthodox methods for treating its patients: The nutrient drip comes from a La Marzocco espresso machine, not an IV apparatus. The restorative substance, C₈H₁₀N₄O_2, is contained in coffee beans from the London roaster Square Mile, not prescription medicines. And periodic doses of this made-to-order medicinal extraction, even when diluted and interwoven with warm milk to produce groovy, kid-friendly designs, are not recommended for children.

Ben Townsend, the British owner/operator of The Espresso Room, may not be an accredited pharmacist, but he fastidiously pulls every shot of espresso as if it were lifesaving. He’s proof you don’t need to have Antipodean ancestry to be an unflappably affable London barista. (We’ll simply ignore the fact that he spent 8 years in Melbourne, acquiring Australian citizenship – and possibly a sunny disposition – along the way.) His good-natured perfectionism has turned this narrow slice of Bloomsbury into one of the top 10 coffee shops in London.

31-35 Great Ormond Street, London, WC1 (see map)